Tracks of my tears: Happy ending for 1950s kindergartner (UPDATED!)

UPDATED! Bob sent me a photo, which is now included at the end of this post. He’s a docent on the Board of Directors at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento. He writes: “The picture is with one of my cars that we have a lot of fun with on tours etc.” Thanks, Bob!

My favorite part about the Let’s Go to the Morgue! archive series is that at the end of the day, it makes me like people more. Our photographers at the Chronicle have done a wonderful job now and in the past of telling stories with their cameras and capturing what it was like to live in the city. And inevitably when I get in contact with someone from an old photo, it’s a very nice exchange.

I really enjoyed this Art Frisch photo essay of Robert Tarczy from Bob’s first day of kindergarten in 1950, so I decided to track him down. I found him pretty quickly, we exchanged e-mails, and a day later we had this very pleasant 20 minute conversation.

Tarczy, in his mid-60s and retired now from his job as director of maintenance in the San Juan Unified School District, lives in the Sacramento area. My interview, along with two more photos and the short article that accompanied the photos, is below. I asked Bob to send me a current photo and he seemed up for it — I’ll update the post if one arrives in my e-mail inbox.

Q. This has to be one of the weirder phone calls you’ve received this year.

A. Oh, yeah. (Laughs) It brought back a lot of memories. We still have a copy of the article somewhere. My mother kept it for years and years, and it passed down to me when they were gone. I can’t say I know exactly where it is, but we didn’t get rid of it.

Q. Do you remember that day at all?

No, I can’t say that I remember the actual day. And I have no idea why I was afraid to start school. Alamo School was a big school. It was before it was remodeled. It was kind of a big, dark school. Maybe that was it.

Q. Where did you live in San Francisco?

A. We lived on 22nd and Clement, probably four doors down from the schoolyard at Alamo School. I could walk to school and all of that. We could ride our bikes — I remember riding out to libraries way down on 12th and Lake or wherever. It was a different time.

Art Frisch/Chronicle 1950

Q. Do you have kids?

A. Three boys.

Q. How did they do on their first day of school? Was this a hereditary trait?

A. They did fine! (Laughs) No trouble at all.

Q. Has your first day of kindergarten become lore in your family? Does anyone give you a hard time?

A. Not too much. Everyone knows about it, though. My kids have certainly seen the article.

Q. When’s the last time you’ve seen the old school?

A. We go back every once in a while. My grandmother owned the building on 22nd and Clement. It was four flats and they were big. We owned that some time into the 1980s. I wish we still owned it.

Q. You’d be talking to me from your car phone in your Bentley.

A. I probably would. Without a doubt. … My mother grew up on 44th Avenue in the Richmond District, and my dad grew up on 29th Avenue in the Richmond District. So we go down there quite a bit. My brother still owns property in San Francisco, but he has since moved to San Diego. We moved to Sacramento in ’76.

Q. I’ve got to ask, are you an emotional guy now? Do you cry at movies?

A. No, I would say not, not very often. Although once in a while if it’s a real sad story I might. (Laughs)

Art Frisch/Chronicle 1950

Q. You mother is trying to console you in the photo. Any memories of her you’d like to share?

A. She was a very caring person. A good mother. If anything maybe a little overprotective, and that could have been one of the underlying reasons (for the crying). She was afraid of everything. … It was a different time from where kids are growing up now. We could go long distances from our homes. But things like the ocean — she didn’t want us going out to Ocean Beach. That was dangerous! “That undertow, it will pull you right out.” She was protective in that way.

Q. But you know what? You’re OK now. She did her job.

A. Oh yeah. She did her job, indeed. Without a doubt.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes often has nothing to do with parenting. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub. Your questions answered on VYou at www.vyou.com/peterhartlaub.